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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28308303">A Very Manifest Christmas</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/zekelandons/pseuds/zekelandons'>zekelandons</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Manifest (TV 2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Christmas, Christmas Fluff, F/M, Holidays, Mistletoe, Presents</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:14:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,171</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28308303</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/zekelandons/pseuds/zekelandons</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Stones and the Landons celebrate Christmas together</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Zeke Landon/Michaela Stone</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Very Manifest Christmas</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The soft morning light woke Michaela from a deep sleep. She moaned as she stirred in her sleep and she felt Zeke’s arms wrap around her tightly. “Merry Christmas,” he murmured in her ear. “Is it Christmas already?” she asked sleepily. “I thought yesterday was Thanksgiving.” Zeke chuckled. “It’s Christmas alright. And,” he paused as he rolled over so he was staring into Michaela’s eyes, “it’s my first Christmas with you.” He leaned forward and ever so softly, he brushed his lips against hers. When he pulled back, her eyes were still closed and she was smiling. “I love you, Mick,” he whispered. She opened her eyes and he found himself staring into her beautiful blue eyes. She was the most beautiful person in his life and she meant more to him than anything else. She was the greatest gift in his life and he thanked the Callings for bringing her into his life. “I love you too,” she whispered back. “And I get to spend Christmas with my best friend, my <i>husband</i> and I couldn’t be anymore happier.” Zeke grinned. “I got a present for you,” he told her. “Oooooh, what is it?” she asked. “You’ll see.” Getting off the bed, Zeke stepped outside for a moment and Michaela heard a familiar sound of a puppy whining. When Zeke came back, there was a little white puppy with a red bowtie wrapped around its collar in Zeke's arms. “Zeke you got us a puppy?!” Michaela shrieked. “Yes! And his name is Snowflake.” “Snowflake, come here baby,” Michaela cooed as she took Snowflake from Zeke’s arms and gave him kisses and he licked her cheek. “Awww he’s so sweet.” Zeke chuckled. “I knew you’d like him. Our neighbor’s daughter is a West Highland White Terrier breeder and her dog gave birth to some puppies a few weeks ago and I figured we might as well get a dog. I can tell Snowflake already loves you.” Sitting next to Michaela, she and Zeke petted Snowflake and he responded by licking them and wagging his tail. “You want breakfast?” Zeke asked her? “Of course and then we can open our presents after.” Putting Snowflake on the ground, Zeke took Michaela’s hand in his and led her to the dining room table where there was already food on the table. Zeke had made French toast, scrambled eggs with bacon and there were mixed berries, powdered sugar and maple syrup on the table. “Wow, this looks amazing,” Michaela gasped. To top it all off, Zeke grabbed two cups of coffee that were filled with whipped cream with chocolate and peppermint shavings. “Ok, that looks delicious!” she giggled. Sitting down, the two of them took some French toast and scrambled eggs and bacon and they spooned the berries over the French toast and added a bit of powdered sugar on it and drizzled maple syrup on it. Zeke could tell Michaela loved the breakfast; she was smiling and she was savoring every bit of it.</p>
<p>After breakfast, they went to the living room and took their presents from underneath the tree. Zeke presented Michaela a small box and she opened it up to find a very dainty necklace. The necklace was a gold chain and there were two snowflake charms along with a small charm of the constellation Gemini. On a closer look, she noticed that one snowflake had a letter M engraved on it and the other one had a letter Z engraved on it. “Wow,” she whispered. “This is beautiful.” “I knew you’d like it. I had it custom made one for you and one for me.” Zeke showed Michaela his necklace that he wore on his neck. For him, it reminded him of Chloe and her star necklace that she loved. He had put her necklace on top of the small cairn that he and Michaela had built together the day after they had first met. He figured that he and Michaela needed something that they could wear besides their wedding rings of course to remind them of their love for each other. “Snow and stars are our thing,” she said as he put the necklace on her. “Snow led me to you. The stars showed us that we are connected.” When he finished putting it on, she looked down at the little Gemini charm. <i>Zeke, the petrograph, that was about you and me,The Callings want us to accomplish something together.</i> The Callings were mysterious and odd, but what they were very good at were bringing two people who suffered through massive trauma in their lives together and creating a relationship that would last through trials and tribulations. There was no doubt about it; what Zeke and Michaela had was something that was very rare. And they were happy to be together as a married couple. Michaela handed Zeke his present and he opened it up to find a very big bag of pork rinds. “Merry Christmas babe,” Michaela chuckled. “Had to get you some of those.” Zeke responded by sweeping Michaela off her feet and kissing her deeply in his arms. He spun her around and in between kisses they giggled and whispered “I love you” to each other. Zeke looked at the clock. It was already ten in the morning and the rest of the Stones would be over at one. “I gotta make dinner,” he said to Michaela. “And we need to change out of our PJ’s. Can’t have company over if we look like this. And I’m gonna take Snowflake outside for a bit.” she told him. Smiling at her, Zeke nodded and they both headed back to the bedroom to get dressed for the day.</p>
<p>After taking Snowflake on a walk around their block, Michaela came back to the house and the smell of prime rib and mashed potatoes entered into her nose. “Mmmmmmm,” she moaned with pleasure. “That smells amazing.” Zeke, who was in the kitchen, heard her and turned around and grinned. “Of course it smells good, it is my cooking after all.” Michaela laughed. “Snowflake and I had a good walk around the block. It’s very sunny outside.” “It is. And cold. Come over here and tell me if the potatoes need more butter,” Zeke said as Michaela made her way to him. Giving her a spoon of potatoes, she took a bite and she nodded. “A bit more,” she said. “And some more cream too.” Zeke nodded and Michaela grabbed the butter and the cream from the fridge and gave it to him. “Did you have any Christmas traditions in your family?” she asked him. He sighed. “Before she died, Chloe and I we always made Christmas cookies together. She loves peppermint cookies. Well, after Chloe died, it was me and my mother. We didn’t have much of an extended family so we had a small Christmas with just me and her. When I moved out and my addiction became more important than anything else, I would spend it with my drug buddies getting high. It’s not very fun, I’ll tell you. It hurt a lot. But now, I can celebrate Christmas with you and the rest of your family. And I’m glad my parents are able to join us for dinner. It will be the first real Christmas I’ve celebrated in a really long time.” Michaela closed her eyes and she felt sorry for Zeke. She knew Chloe’s death was hard on his family and holidays without her were hard for him and his parents. Luckily, he had an amazing wife and family that supported him in every way.</p>
<p>At one in the afternoon, the doorbell rang and the Stones arrived. Grace had in her hands a casserole dish and Ben had pop in a bag. Cal, Olive and TJ all had presents in their hands and Michaela’s dad Steve was holding Eden. Behind them, Zeke’s parents, Gordon and Priscilla also carried presents as well. Michaela hugged everyone and showed them where to put their presents and Grace and Zeke worked their magic in the kitchen, finishing up making dishes. When Snowflake heard the commotion, he rang up to everyone and began barking and wagging his tail. “You got a puppy Auntie Mick?” asked Cal. “It was a gift from your uncle,” she told him. “His name is Snowflake and he is very friendly.” Cal bent down to the ground and began petting Snowflake and Snowflake gave him lots of kisses. Michaela laughed as she saw her nephew playing with the puppy. Snowflake was very friendly and he seemed to like Cal.</p>
<p>Christmas dinner was enjoyable. Lots of jokes were made during dinner and everyone was doing well. TJ was due to leave for Egypt in January and he and Olive gazed at each other with love. Michaela admired their young love and how they found each other after all those years. Ben and Grace took turns holding Eden and Michaela took Eden for a bit and she and Zeke gazed at their little niece with love. They knew they wanted to start a family some day in the future. They had talked about it after Zeke survived the Death Date and they both knew they wanted kids at some point in the future. Michaela knew Zeke had doubts about being a good dad after what happened to him when he was younger. But, he told her that he would be the best father he could be to their kids and she had smiled at that.</p>
<p>After dinner, the Stones and the Landons made their way to the living room where they began to open more presents. Zeke gave Cal a very fancy art kit filled with every imaginable pencils, markers, crayons, and brushes. Along with the kit came paint and even a few sketchbooks. “He draws his Callings so I’d figure he needed something to do it,” Zeke had explained to Michaela when they went Christmas shopping for the rest of the family a few weeks ago. “It helps him and us.” Michaela bought Zeke a whole bunch of new flannels and even a gift card to a flannel store in New York City. “I know how much you love flannels,” she joked. Zeke laughed. “Yes, you do.” From Ben and Grace, Zeke and Michaela received an all around paid expense trip to Central America. “You can use it for your honeymoon,” Ben told Michaela. “The two of you need a long break from here. Relax, spend all the time you need just by yourselves.” Olive received a book on Egyptian mythology from Michaela. “Figured you might want to do some research while TJ is away,” she explained. “Thanks,” Olive replied as she flipped through the book. “This will help me a lot.” From Ben, TJ got a book about lightning storms. “I know science isn’t your thing, but Al-Zuras talked about electrical storms in his journal so I’d figured you might want to do some research about it, see if you can find anything interesting.” TJ grinned. “Thanks Ben, I’ll definitely be reading this.” From Zeke and Michaela, Ben and Grace got an all expense paid trip to Vermont in the Green Mountains. There was a little AirBnB that Zeke found and he suggested to Michaela that Grace and Ben needed some time away from the city and she agreed. “I’ve always wanted to go to Vermont,” Grace sighed happily. “Thanks guys!” After all the presents were opened, the family played Monopoly and Scrabble and Steve and Gordon both fell asleep in the chairs they were sleeping in. Olive and Cal giggled as they looked at the sleeping men. Michaela was with Zeke on the couch, her head resting on his shoulder and their hands were joined and Zeke caught her looking at her wedding ring. They were family heirlooms and he knew that Michaela would love them and he was right. It was a perfect Christmas.</p>
<p>Later that night after everyone left, Zeke and Michaela were standing in between the living room and the dining room when Michaela looked up and saw the mistletoe. “Um, Zeke?” she said as she nudged him.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Look up.”</p>
<p>He did and he looked back at her again. “Shall we?” he asked her. She smiled. Putting one hand on his cheek, Michaela leaned forward and kissed him softly. They pulled apart for a moment before kissing again. Zeke hadn’t felt happy for a long time at Christmas time but now, he had something to be happy about. He survived the Death Date, married the love of his life and was working on getting his life back together. He knew that this was the best Christmas he could ever ask for. When they pulled apart again, Michaela gazed into Zeke’s soft hazel eyes. “I love you so much Ezekiel James Landon,” she whispered. “I love you too, Michaela Beth Stone. Merry Christmas honey.” “Merry Christmas to you too.” Giggling, they kissed again, knowing that there were many more Christmases for them in their future.</p>
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